Teaching+Strategy

**Teaching Strategy for Developing Fluency with Fact Families**
1. **Assess what the student knows:** Find out which combinations the student knows already. Use the 10x10 chart, crossing off the known ones. Focus on the unknown ones. 2. **Reinforce strategies they know:** Listen for any patterns or strategies they use as you quiz them on known combinations. Build on those strategies (e.g. skip counting by 2’s or 5’s along the 100’s chart can help them learn some of the higher 2’s or 5’s they might not know off-hand, like 2 x 8 or 5 x 9). Get them to verbalize any strategies they already use, such as using a known combination to find an unknown one (e.g. 5 x 9 = 5 x 8 + 5). Let them know that it’s good to use strategies, and that some students can use them as fast as if they had memorized the combination. 3. **Use well-structured problems to focus on concepts:** Provide lots of well-structured problems that require the use of number combinations they don’t know but that can build on ones they do know. This also ensures that they understand the concepts of multiplication and division. Allow the use of drawings for figuring out these problems, but always have them write the number sentence to go with each one.
 * The concept of multiplication is counting the number of objects in groups of equal size. This can be modeled by skip counting (repeated addition). For example, Karen has 5 bunches of flowers. Each bunch has 4 flowers in it. How many flowers does she have altogether?
 * Division is related to multiplication. If Karen has 20 flowers and wants to put them in bunches of 4 flowers each, how many bunches could she make? (how many groups?) Or, we could ask: Karen has 20 flowers and wants to put them into 5 bunches. How many flowers would be in each bunch? (how many in a group?)

4. **Use representations** of multiplication and division, such as skip counting on the number line and the use of array and area models. Sometimes new contexts or visual models trigger better memory storage. Create alternative versions of these problems that use the division facts within the fact family as well as the multiplication fact. Ensure that students understand that multiplication combinations represent fact families that also include two related division statements. 5. **Introduce new strategies as needed**, such as the “squares minus one” strategy and the finger strategy for 9’s 6. **Use fluency games.** Have students play fluency games, such as the product game at illuminations.nctm.org, or board games, games with cards or dice. These provide practice in an agreeable way, and encourage students to determine number combinations quickly (efficiently) because of the competition built into the game.